Anticipated Release Schedule

Eric Peterson described Star Citizen as being a series of modules,[1] culminating with the launch of the Star Citizen persistent universe and Squadron 42 narrative. Anticipated release dates for these modules follow.

Contents

Release dates

Hangar

I'm planning to probably release [an] app for people that will let them hang out in their hangar, and look at the ships they've bought. So, when we've got to the point that all the ships are in the engine, and I can do that- it will probably be before the single player game and before the single player alpha comes out- I'm going to let our backers have that app, so they can sit around and look around in their ships, and walk around them.

The first thing we’re planning is, in August, for Gamescom and PAX, we’re going to release the hangar module to all the backers. It’s a space hangar you can go in, all in the engine, and you can see the ships that you’ve pledged. Walk around in 3D. Go inside them. Invite your friends to hang out and see your ships. You should also be able to do some customization on the ships. I’m not sure if we’ll have all the assets built by then, but you should be able to customize. That’s in August.

Dogfighting Module

An announcement stated that the dogfighting module will be revealed from an outside venue one day before the PAX East show, which is open April 11-13, 2014.[14] Please note: The revealing is different than the release.

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We're going to do an unveiling of the Dogfighting Module at PAX East, check your calendars real quickly, just like we did the hangar last year. If all goes as planned, then we will release it to the public shortly after that reveal.

The Dogfighting module plan, subject to change, is we're going to reveal [at] PAX East, and I know the date, you might catch a clue on that if you look at the website and try to look at when is a poll for a certain event going on there. So it will be a reveal, sort of like we did for the Hangar, and then we will a few days after, a little bit after that, when everybody gets back if everything is ready to go, we'll then have that big dogfighting module release. If it's not then, then it will be dang close to then, because we're working hard [...]

Multiplayer dog fighting without a persistent universe or the Squadron 42 narrative... It's for everyone to get a feel of flying and to develop tactics (and for the developers to [stress] test and balance with real players).

And then in December, the end of December, we'll release the dogfighting module, which will allow you to take the ship that you've backed, basically what you've got sitting in your hangar, and go into space in sort of a head-to-head deathmatch against other players or AI ... so in December people will be able to sort of dogfight and play, so they actually will be to have close to a World of Tanks style experience there, which will be kind of cool, and we'll be adding ship items and more stuff on there so people will be able to customize their ships. So basically the hangar will be working in concert with the dogfighting module.

The short answer is- it's not going to be in the next month, or so, but it'll be in the next couple of months, so.. I think probably March, end of March/April is the timeline we're looking at. [When] we come back in January, we will do another assessment, and we will communicate to the community.

FPS / Ship Boarding Module

And then after [the planetside module] we're gonna have the first-person shooter ship boarding module where they can fight against other people on their ship. And then an alpha of the single-player story Squadron 42. And then finally an alpha of Star Citizen, which is a full sandbox universe that involves all these modules.

Social / Planetside Module

A social module was described in the January 2013 edition of the German computer gaming magazine GameStar.[23]

The social module will mark the ability to visit other players in their hangars.[24]

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We've got another module that we call the Planetside module, which is sort of down on the planet, the social interaction, talking to people in the bar or going to into a shop and buying and selling stuff.

...and then in the following year (2014) we'll release sort of a planetside module which will be kind of a social module. That's where you can go into the bar and talk to all the people, buy/sell stuff, upgrade your ship.

The planet side module releases sometime next year (Chris tells us perhaps March or April) and will include the social aspects of being on a planet. You’ll be able to do things like go to the bar and chat.

So, the module we are planning to do right after dogfighting is the Planetside module, and that one is the module that's more focused on down on planetside environments, going in to, say, a space bar or in to a shop to buy and sell items or goods. Sometimes I think we refer to it as the social module because we are going to allow ... that's one of the modules we are focusing on to let other players be in a shared space and test our MMO backend and maybe interact with other players on a sort of avatar/social basis.

The plan is to give you guys a final polished S42. Alpha and Beta access are absolutely on for Star Citizen in terms of the different modules (Hangar, Dogfighting, Ground Based combat etc.) but S42 will be a standalone game given free to all those who have backed before Star Citizen launches. Having said that, as S42 will be using all the elements from these different modules, and improving the game based on the communities feedback as they are released for Alpha, you will all be making a contribution to making S42 a much better game. What we won't be letting people see early is the plot / story and missions, as we want it to be a ground breaking, immersive experience for everyone when they first play the campaign and are introduced to the level of quality we want to bring to the universe.

Persistent Universe Module / Beta

Approximate date: End of 2015(a minimum of 4 months after the first Squadron 42 chapter is released.)[3][28][29][21]

Expected some time after all 50 Squadron 42 episodes have been released.[29]

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...and then a beta of the persistent universe by the end of the year (2014), which essentially is bringing all of these things into one holistic piece, and then we'll go live after the beta which I would anticipate would probably be sometime in early 2015. But essentially from the end of 2014 you should be able to play the full game, it'll just be beta because there obviously still will be things to tweak and balance, and we'll try and keep the player base constrained until after we've gone through beta, because, you know, it's not really a beta if you've got a million players.

[... We] plan to launch the Persistent Universe sometime in 2015 and expect to have all the features we’ve talked about to date implemented and functioning (with the help of the community which will be testing them) over the course of the ensuing year.

Squadron 42

Eric Peterson: What's the plan of action for [Squadron 42]?Phil Meller: Well, the first ten missions for the end of this year, fingers crossed. So we'll [start] with those, and then, in the background, we'll have other teams working on the followup ten; You know, ten, there are segments of ten missions every month, after.Eric Peterson: You're kind of doing the modular release kind of schedule, like the rest of us where, it's interesting- it's a serial sort of release, kind of like the old movies, the old Buck Rogers movies, or something.Phil Meller: Yeah yeah yeah, that's the plan, yeah like cliffhangers at the end of them, like Flash Gordon, like the old Flash Gordon serials. You know, the big cliffhanger at the end of the, every ten mission segment.

In terms of when Squadron 42 is launched, [...] when we put it out it will be ten missions with the intro, with the intro it will be ten missions, and then we will do a further four chapters with ten missions each, so there will be fifty missions on the launch.